


it'd be a grave mistake to waste this killer groove

by zambonied



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, M/M, for all we know, making out at a halloween party, that's it that's the reason why this exists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:20:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27313972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zambonied/pseuds/zambonied
Summary: “Has anyone seen Nursey? I didn’t spot him yet.”Everyone looks around, until Hops speaks up. “Oh! There he comes!” he says, pointing at the staircase.It’s exactly like Nursey to be fashionably late to his own party, Dex thinks as he turns to look.He regrets it almost immediately, though, when he actually catches sight of Nursey.So what if his best friend and crush is dressed as a hot vampire with his really nice chest glittering under the string lights and his tighter pair of dress pants? Dex can handle this.Or, the one in which Nursey dresses up as a vampire for the Haus Halloween Kegster and Dex can definitely not handle it.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 12
Kudos: 204





	it'd be a grave mistake to waste this killer groove

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween!
> 
> this all came together in less than a week, wow! i've never written nor edited this much writing in such little time. and i probably never will again...
> 
> big thanks to [evan](https://helenspiralgf.tumblr.com) for letting me ramble about the costumes and the concept and to [jo](https://deniceford.tumblr.com) for giving me the motivation to finish this in time!
> 
> title is from freak fest by seth freeman (which... i may or may not have discovered in naomi and ely's no kiss list. and when i heard the lyrics "i got my vampire teeth and your neck, it sure looks fine" i thought. hey. i can make nurseydex out of this.)

Dex is nose-deep in his Data Structures textbook when Chowder brings it up.

“I’m so excited for Halloween,” he sighs.

Dex looks up, still seeing the charts floating in front of his eyes, and finds that Chowder has abandoned his own notes, leaning back with a content smile.

“It’s gonna be chill,” Nursey agrees without looking away from his laptop screen. He frowns at it as he shoves another one of the chocolate chip cookies Dex stress-baked yesterday into his mouth. Dex, in a weak moment, wants to smooth out the frown with his fingers. Or maybe his mouth.

Without warning, Chowder bolts upright in his chair and slams his open palms onto the table. Dex almost jumps in his seat. Almost. “We should all dress up for the Kegster!”

Nursey looks over to him then, frown disappearing all without Dex’s help. “Are you suggesting a Frog group costume?”

Dex freezes.

“Oh, uh.” Chowder’s face falls a little, his eyebrows furrowing. “Cait and I already said we’d do a couple’s costume. I can totally ask her if we can change plans, though, if you want! It’s only the beginning of September anyway!”

“Nah, chill,” Nursey says, smirking. “Can’t wait to see you guys get fined to hell and back.” Chowder huffs out his own laugh. “I’ll definitely dress up, though.”

Relieved, Dex goes back to his textbook as Chowder leans over the table to bump fists with Nursey. 

He barely manages to read the head of yet another flowchart before Nursey bumps his knee into Dex’s and asks, “You gonna dress up too, Dexy?” He doesn’t move his knee away again.

“Uh. No?” he tries.

The thing is, Dex isn’t the most creative guy. The past Halloweens he got away with minimal effort. His freshman year, the team gave him the one free pass for his hockey player costume that was just his own gear sans the skates, his sophomore year he just slipped on a headband with devil’s horns on them when anyone from the team was nearby, and last year he got out of it by being too sick to even attend the Kegster.

He kind of thought he could go his final year, the year of his captaincy no less, without embarrassing himself in front of his team and half of Samwell’s student body.

“Dex!” Chowder cries, like Dex just insulted the Sharks. Again. “You gotta!”

“Do I, though?” Dex asks and leans back. Clearly he’s not going to get out of this as easily as he had hoped. “I feel stupid dressing up and I don’t even know what I’d go as.”

“Oh, I got a few ideas,” Nursey drawls and his grin tells Dex he’s about to suggest as many costumes involving gingers as he can think of before someone stops him.

“Don’t say it,” Dex warns quickly, shooting him a glare that, sadly, lacks any and all heat.

Nursey holds up his hands placatingly, acting all innocent like Dex doesn’t see right through him.

“Dex,” Chowder starts again, “this is your last Halloween Kegster.”

“Yeah, bro,” Nursey adds. “And as captain, you should lead by example.”

Dex sighs. He hates that Nursey’s right. Or, rather, that he can’t find a good argument to help his case. He  _ is  _ captain and he  _ does  _ want everyone to have a good time. It would be kind of odd if the captain himself isn’t wearing a costume at his own team’s Halloween party, wouldn’t it? 

“C’mon, Dex,” Chowder prods and puts on the puppy dog eyes he knows no one, especially not Dex, can resist.

With a groan, Dex buries his face in his hands. If he were dramatic, he’d say his life is flashing before his eyes right now. But he’s _not_. So. “Fine,” he gives in and lifts his head again. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Hell yeah!” Chowder cheers.

Nursey presses his knee against Dex’s a little harder and smiles. “Can’t wait to see what you come up with, bro.”

Before Dex’s heartbeat can betray him and speed up or his face can flush, Dex ducks back down into his sea of notes. 

* * *

Dex actually likes doing his laundry. Being able to sort his clothes into neat little categories really helps him settle his nerves after a long day.

Taking things out of the dryer—the new one that they finally managed to get after a particularly lucrative visit from Jack and Bitty a while back—is great too, especially now in late October. It’s been raining and storming all day, so Dex revels in the comfortable warmth of his clothes as he unloads the dryer.

When he goes to fold a pair of jeans, he notices tears in the denim. Dex sighs. It sucks when things break, but this pair has actually served him well over the past couple of years, a sturdy pair of pants for any yard work he had to do around the Haus. He shoots the pants a last sad but grateful look, then throws them behind him in the general direction of the trash.

He goes through a couple of socks and boxers before he gets a hold of one of his flannels. It’s an older one—a hand-me-down from his brother, probably—that’s pretty tattered by now. A couple of seams have started to come undone and branches he’s cut off the trees on the Haus property have poked noticeable holes into the fabric.

Well, he’s already thrown out the jeans, so. Might as well, while he’s at it, right? He’s not in dire need of new clothes and Christmas is pretty much right around the corner anyway. He balls up the flannel and throws it toward the trash too, then goes back to empty the rest of his, hopefully intact, clothes.

He’s almost done, just a couple of shirts left, when his phone buzzes a few times in the pocket of his sweatpants. He fishes it out and wakes up the display to find five messages in the groupchat he has with Chowder and Nursey. The last one showing up on his screen is a chirp from Nursey directed at him, so he decides to check.

the true frogs  
  
**Today** 5:49 PM  
Chowder  
guys!! how are your costumes coming along?? cait and i just got everything done it’ll be so cool  
Nursey  
you’ll just have to wait and… c ;)  
get it  
Chowder  
nice one nursey  
dex!! what about you??  
Nursey  
i bet dexy doesn’t even have one lol bet he forgot  


And. Shit. It’s Chowder asking about his costume. The costume Dex promised to wear a few weeks ago. The costume he has spent no thoughts whatsoever on. The costume he’s pushed to the back of his mind, burying it under all the stress of hockey and midterms and group projects.

It’s not like he can say that, though, so he sends a reply that’s just cryptic enough to keep Chowder happy and buy him time to figure out what the fuck he’s going to do before he puts his phone onto the dryer.

There’s no way in hell he’s going to disappoint Chowder, and he’s not the type of guy who goes back on his word. But he also can’t just pull on his gear and say he’s a hockey player again. Just getting a set of fake vampire teeth isn’t going to fly either and would probably just earn him chirps until the day he dies.

Frantically, he looks around the basement, desperate for any kind of idea.

A house plant? Absolutely not.

A handyman? He’d never live that down.

A ghost? Too cliché, as Nursey would say.

His eyes land on the pair of jeans and the flannel in the corner—he missed the trash by a mile, apparently—and then it hits him.

He can do a murdered lumberjack. He can totally pull it off. His clothes are already torn, so he only has to get them dirty again, maybe with soil from the yard or some fake blood, and Nursey has called him a lumberjack a couple of times, even if it was a joke. It fits. And it’s spooky enough. 

Right?

It has to be.

At practice tomorrow he’s going to ask Ford to borrow a prop axe from the theater department. He’s sure she’ll help him out if he asks nicely. And brings a batch of snickerdoodles just for her.

All that’s left is makeup. There’s no way Dex is able to do that himself and he can’t exactly go and ask Nursey or Chowder or Farmer for help. But he does know people in the theater department aside from Ford. If he remembers correctly, Ryan mentioned something about a special effects makeup midterm the last time they hung out.

He picks his phone back up, unlocking it as he turns to lean against the dryer.

Ryan  
  
**Today** 6:01 PM  
hey do you need help practicing for that midterm thing  
  
sure ;) my dorm at 7  
  
i mean like actual literal help.  
  
Ah.  
  
you forgot to think about a costume for your hockey team party  
  
... maybe  
  
fine okay come over to the studio on saturday at 7  
  
thanks i owe you one  
  
damn right you do william  
  


Dex sighs in relief. He locks his phone again, slips it back into his pocket, and returns to folding the last couple of shirts.

Maybe this will be just fine after all.

* * *

When Dex makes it to the studio space on Saturday, already dressed in the jeans and flannel that he dragged through the dirt in the Haus backyard while no one was home and his heavy winter boots, he finds Ryan already waiting. He’s leaning against the door, his own costume—Hercules, maybe, in a toga that’s a little more revealing than is probably historically accurate—and a bored expression on and a set of keys in his hand.

“Sup, Will,” Ryan calls.

“I’m not late,” Dex defends, in lieu of a greeting, “I still got five minutes.”

Ryan pushes off the wall and his toga shifts, almost slipping off his shoulder. Dex kind of worries he’ll be cold when he steps outside later to go to whatever Halloween party he picked. Hopefully Ryan brought a jacket somewhere. And warmer shoes. “I didn’t say anything,” Ryan chuckles as he unlocks the door.

Inside, Dex sets the fake axe Ford got him down on one of the empty tables, careful not to get any of the fake blood on the table. Ryan steers him toward one of the big fancy mirrors with the lights and pushes him into the chair in front of it.

“So, what are you trying to be?” Ryan asks as he drags over a stool and takes a seat in front of Dex.

“Uh, a murdered lumberjack? Duh. That’s why I got the axe.”

Ryan cocks an unimpressed eyebrow. “That’s why you need my help.”

“Why are you so rude?” Dex pouts and Ryan laughs, a deep and pleasant sound. It’s nice, but nowhere near as nice as Nursey’s warm, loud laughter, snorting and all.

“You need to hear it,” Ryan shrugs. He regards Dex for a moment, then simply nods and says, “Alright.” Without asking Dex for his opinions or ideas, he turns and digs through the desk next to them and takes out what he needs. Dex can’t even name half of the stuff.

“Do you need those back?” Dex asks, eyeing the pack of silicone prosthetics curiously.

Ryan shoots him a glare. “Yeah, right, I can totally use those again for other people. Real hygienic.” He mutters something under his breath that Dex thinks might be a _fucking athletes_ , so he kicks his shin. Just in case.

Ryan gets to work quietly and Dex is content to just let him turn and angle his face, dabbing at this skin with what Dex assumes is glue and paint. He trusts Ryan a lot more than he would himself. 

“So,” Ryan starts after a few moments of silence, “how are things with this Nurse guy?”

Dex inhales sharply.

He and Ryan met at one of the Kegsters Ford invited her theater friends to last year. They were both a little tipsy and Ryan was definitely flirting with him—refilling his drink for him, leaning against the doorframe even though he only reaches up to Dex’s collarbone, touching his arm, asking if he _wants to get out of here_.

Ryan was charming and he could’ve gone home with anyone, probably, with his blonde curls, big brown eyes, cute belly. Dex told him then, openly, that he was pretty hung up on someone else, but Ryan just shrugged and said he’s not looking for a relationship anyway, so Dex emptied his cup and followed him out the Haus door back to his dorm.

The next morning, Ryan bluntly but amicably asked who he was pining for and Dex, drowsy with a sizable headache, spilled it all.

Since then, Ryan has been pestering him about his crush on Nursey any chance he gets.

“They’re fine,” Dex says noncommittally, keeping his eyes closed.

“Fine, huh?” Ryan pushes as he applies something cold and wet to Dex’s cheek.

Dex sighs. “I was cramming for one of my early midterms at the library last week and he brought me my favorite coffee from Annie’s, even though his class was literally all the way on the other side of campus.”

“That’s pretty gay,” Ryan throws in.

“And when I got back to the Haus at, like, close to midnight, he was passed out on the couch. Under a blanket.”

“Oh no,” Ryan says, no sympathy at all in his voice.

“He was snoring and drooling, Ryan,” Dex stresses, “it was _cute_.”

“You are  _ so  _ far gone, man.” 

“I know!” Dex whines. He’s pretty sure that the second plate on the coffee table that night was meant for him, like Nursey planned to eat dinner with him in front of the television. “I don't know what to _do_!”

“Well,” Ryan says, in a tone that makes Dex think he’s going to hate what’s coming next. “You could always do something about it.”

At that, Dex opens his eyes just so he can glare at Ryan, whose focused expression cracks with a shit-eating grin. “Yeah, right, sure.” Dex pointedly slips his eyes closed again.

Ryan lets out a long-suffering sigh and starts working on Dex’s forehead instead.

When he’s done, Dex has cuts on his eyebrow and his cheek, dark purple bruises around his left eye, and a particularly nasty looking gash on his throat. It looks pretty scary, if Dex says so himself.

“Thanks, Ryan, it’s perfect,” he tells him as he inspects himself in the mirror. God knows it would’ve been a disaster and a half if he’d tried any of this by himself. “You’re gonna be great on that midterm.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ryah ushers him out of the chair as he puts the things back where he got them. “You owe me one.”

Dex hums. “Annie’s next Wednesday? On me, obviously.”

“Sounds good,” Ryan says and starts toward the door as Dex picks up his fake axe again.

Dex is halfway down the hall when Ryan calls out to him again. “Hey, Will!”

“Yeah?” Dex stops and turns around to look at Ryan standing there with the keys dangling off his finger.

“Finally make a move on your man!” 

Ryan starts down the other end of the hallway before Dex can stop sputtering and defend himself.

* * *

The first one to greet him at the Haus is Chowder.

He barely makes it past the front door, the inside already bustling with people, before he hears Chowder gasping, and then he’s there, right in front of him dressed as Han Solo with Farmer as Leia next to him. They chose the Return of the Jedi outfits from Han’s rescue. Chowder really wasn’t kidding when he said their costumes would be cool.

“Dex!” Chowder cries, an ecstatic grin splitting his face. Dex wonders, briefly, how many beers he’s in already. “You actually came in a costume!”

“Of course. I promised.”

“It looks so cool! Wow!” Chowder looks him up and down, and Dex decides he’s had two beers, probably. “And the wounds! They look so real!”

“Thanks, C. You guys look great too,” Dex says, smiling down at Chowder. “I’m gonna go around and say hi.”

“Alright,” Chowder nods and starts off in the direction they came from. Farmer pats his forearm on her way past him and says, “Sick costume, Dex.”

Dex makes his round through the Haus, exchanging fist bumps and highfives and the occasional bro hug with whoever he recognizes from class or the captains’ meetings or the theater department—he even nods toward some of Nursey’s classmates he met a few months ago—until he spots the Taddies and two thirds of the Waffles.

“Hey,” Dex greets as he steps into their circle.

“Hey, Cap,” Bully shoots back—he’s dressed as a Greaser, Dex thinks, even though those could just be his normal day-to-day clothes—as Whiskey, wearing a Samwell Men’s Lacrosse uniform that looks so real Dex is almost certain it is, just nods at him. Dex wonders if Whiskey’s gear is attending the party across the street. “Nice costume.”

“Sup, Dex,” Hops says, grinning as he reaches out for a fistbump. He’s wearing a long black robe with red symbols on them that Dex only vaguely recognizes. It’s probably from some anime.

“Looking sharp, Dex,” Ford tells him. She’s actually pretty terrifying in her Wednesday Addams costume. Tango in his Where’s Waldo getup looks almost comical next to her. It fits him, though, Dex decides.

“Yeah!” Tango joins in, “you look cool, Dex! Where did you get that axe?”

“Oh, Ford lent it to me.”

“Is It real?” Tango asks again as Dex cranes his neck to scan the crowd for Nursey. He hasn’t seen him while he was making his round and he’s not here either.

“Nope,” Dex answers.

“Who did your makeup?”

“Oh, uh, a friend,” Dex says and Ford shoots him a knowing look. Tango probably has a million more questions ready to go, so Dex continues before he can open his mouth again. “Has anyone seen Nursey? I didn’t spot him yet.”

Everyone looks around, until Hops speaks up. “Oh! There he comes!” he says, pointing at the staircase.

It’s exactly like Nursey to be fashionably late to his own party, Dex thinks as he turns to look at the stairs.

He regrets it almost immediately, though, when he actually catches sight of Nursey.

Dex recognizes his dress shoes, the tight black slacks and the white button down that’s unbuttoned far enough for his chest to be on show from his game day suit, but the black cape around his shoulders, affixed with a little silver chain across his collarbone, is definitely new.

Dex hardly manages to pick his jaw up off the floor by the time Nursey joins them, claiming the spot next to him. Now, up close, Dex sees his cheeks and, much to Dex’s dismay, his neck and chest _glitter_ :

Body glitter should be tacky, but of fucking course it isn’t. Not when it’s Nursey, looking so fucking  _ good  _ in the low light.

Dex forces his eyes back up to Nursey’s face and refuses to wonder how far down Nursey must’ve put the glitter. He almost misses the streak of fake blood on the corner of Nursey’s mouth, but once he notices it, he can’t look away.

“Aw, Dexy,” Nursey coos and pulls Dex back into the moment, “you were supposed to dress up.”

It’s a chirp, a good one even, so it’s more than embarrassing that Dex’s brain is still too caught up on Nursey’s look tonight to chirp him back. Especially in front of the others. “Fuck you, Nurse,” he says weakly.

Nursey pops a set of plastic vampire teeth into his mouth before he turns toward Dex, grinning. “Promith?”

It shouldn’t affect Dex. Nursey chirping him—or maybe crossing the line to flirting?—with fake vampire teeth in shouldn’t affect him like this, make him blush, make him think about pulling Nursey away and kissing him breathless.

Dex decides to go the safe road. He rolls his eyes at Nursey, who just grins wider, and mutters a  _ jesus, Nurse _ before he turns and leaves for the kitchen.

Nursey, on his rants about planning this Kegster, mentioned Halloween themed cocktails and Dex is definitely in need of alcohol if he wants to get through the night with Nursey looking the way he does, so he might as well check out what he managed to come up with.

On his way there, he tells himself that the teeth are going to collect Nursey’s spit and be gross in no time, a sad little attempt to get his heart rate back under control.

So what if his best friend and crush is dressed as a hot vampire with his really nice chest glittering under the string lights and his tighter pair of dress pants? Dex can handle this.

* * *

The Kegster is fun.

Dex plays a game of beer pong against Bully that he manages to win by the skin of his teeth, collects quite a few more compliments on his costume, and tries a couple of the themed cocktails. The puns Nursey came up with for the names are actually pretty funny and the drinks themselves are surprisingly good, even if the candy corn-infused vodka still coats the inside of his mouth.

Through all of it, though, Dex’s eyes keep drifting back to Nursey, always finding him wherever he is in the crowd.

Sometime between the beer pong game and his second cocktail, Dex spots Nursey rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows while he talks to some of his poetry friends and Dex has to look away.

When he catches sight of Nursey again, Dex swears he unbuttoned his shirt a little further, almost down to his belly button, and Dex has to take a very long swig of his drink.

And then Nursey’s right there.

Dex barely manages to set his empty cup down on a worryingly sticky surface before Nursey’s standing in front of him. He looks so fucking beautiful and Dex never wants to look away again.

“Sup, Dex,” Nursey greets easily. He’s definitely leaning into Dex’s space and Dex, deciding to let himself have this, doesn’t lean away. “Having fun?”

“Yep,” Dex replies, popping the p. “You look like you’re having fun too.”

Nursey hums and smiles. “Definitely. But I think I’d have more fun if you danced with me.”

Dex isn’t sure he would survive that, actually, but the look in Nursey’s eyes makes him agree anyway. “Okay.”

Nursey takes one of Dex’s hands in his and leads him toward the dance floor, then he turns around and slides his arms over Dex’s shoulders like he’s done it a million times. Dex takes the hint and settles his own hands on Nursey’s hips, feeling the heat coming through the shirt.

Nursey laughs at him when he starts out a little stiff and that just makes it worse, drawing what’s left of Dex’s attention down to Nursey’s mouth.

Once Nursey starts to sing the song back at him, crooning way too many Halloween puns with a gleeful, breathtaking grin, Dex loosens up, though. He starts to move his hips a little smoother to the music and tightens his grip on Nursey.

When the song ends and a slower one comes on, Nursey doesn’t let go. He only pulls Dex in closer, leans in, and says, right into Dex’s ear. “You look hot tonight.”

Dex feels his cheeks heat up and the filter in his head turns off. 

“You always look hot,” he says back.

That makes Nursey pull back a bit. Dex is about to freak out that he ruined it, crossed a line, gone too far when Nursey’s mouth tugs up into a smirk. “Yeah?” All Dex can do is nod. “Well, I also think you always look hot. But especially tonight.”

Dex’s brain shuts off at that, he’s pretty sure. It’s the only possible explanation for what he does next.

“How much have you had to drink?” Dex asks, a sudden urgency in his voice.

“Uh,” Nursey starts, looking a little confused, “like two Bloody Marys and a beer, why?”

Dex swallows. “I’ve had two cocktails and, like, two beers.”

“Okay?” Nursey cocks an eyebrow, but the lilt of his mouth tells Dex he’s got a pretty good idea where this is going now.

“I really, really wanna kiss you, Derek,” Dex confesses. It feels good, actually, to say it out loud.

It feels even better, though, when Nursey pushes a hand up into Dex’s hair and pulls him into a kiss.

Dex kisses back eagerly, greedily, as all of his senses scream Nursey, Nursey, Nursey. He pushes at Nursey’s hips to get them off the dance floor.

They only bump into one person and a few pieces of furniture, and have to break the kiss twice before Dex’s back hits the wall. Nursey cups the side of Dex’s face with one of his hands, the other one grabbing his waist.

“Finally,” Nursey breathes against his mouth before he kisses Dex again, his breath hot on Dex’s skin as he sighs. 

When Nursey pulls away, his pupils are blown wide and he looks so fucking good. “I wanted to do that for so long.”

“Me too,” Dex admits breathlessly. “I’ve liked you so much for an embarrassingly long time, actually.”

“Liked?” Nursey asks, sly grin creeping onto his face, like he’s determined to keep them from kissing so much longer than they really need to.

“Still do, you asshole.” Dex rolls his eyes as he slips a hand under Nursey’s shirt, feeling the warmth and the sweat on his lower back.

Nursey chuckles. “Good.” He leans in to kiss Dex, chaste and soft this time instead of urgent and hot. “I like you so much too.”

Dex can’t help but grin. “Great.” He means it, he really does. He never thought he’d get here, get this, get Nursey, but there are other, more pressing things he really wants to do right now. “Now kiss me again.”

Nursey does, without wasting another second, and Dex dares to move his other hand further down to his ass. When Nursey gives a pleased sound that sends a warm jolt through Dex’s entire body, he gives it a squeeze. The sound comes again and Dex has never been prouder of himself.

Nursey indulges him with open-mouthed kisses and roaming hands for a while, then he pulls away. Dex swallows his complaint when Nursey starts mouthing along his jaw and down to the clean side of his throat, though. His slight stubble scratches so perfectly against Dex’s skin.

Nursey manages to draw a noise out of Dex too when he bites down at his pulse point, where he can definitely feel Dex’s rapid heartbeat.

Nursey is working on a hickey Dex has no idea how to hide later—not that that’s any of his concern right now—when someone next to them clears their throat. Dex is more than willing to ignore them, but Nursey pulls off him, so Dex has no choice but to open his eyes and look at whoever dared to interrupt them.

It’s Ryan.

“Jesus,” he complains loudly, a little over the top. Dex gets it. He shoots him a happy, delirious grin. They’ll have a lot to talk about tomorrow. “Get a room.”

Dex looks back to Nursey just to find him looking back already, eyes shining and hopeful. “Yeah?” Dex asks.

“Yeah,” Nursey says, smiling. All Dex can do is cup his face with both of his hands and pull him into another quick kiss. Then he steps out from behind Nursey and takes his hand to lead him toward the basement.

* * *

Dex wakes up to snoring. 

Nursey’s back is pressed into Dex’s chest and Dex has both of his arms wrapped tightly around Nursey’s torso, their fingers tangled together. And Nursey’s snoring.

It’s not what he thought his first morning waking up with Nursey in his bed would be like, not that he let himself think about it all too much. He likes the domesticity of it, and after a serious talk last night that left them as boyfriends—Dex still can’t believe it—he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The snoring is kind of annoying, though.

“Hey, Nursey,” he says, his voice raspy from sleep. Calling him Nursey right now, after last night, feels weird, so he tries again. “Derek.”

Nursey barely stirs and the snoring gets louder, as if he’s somehow doing it on purpose. Knowing him, it might be.

“Derek,” Dex says again, a little louder. He untangles their hands and pats Nursey’s naked stomach a few times. “C’mon, stop snoring.”

That gets a groan out of Nursey that sounds like he’s on his way to consciousness. Success. But then he decides to stretch, throwing his arms up and behind him, almost hitting Dex square in the face.

“What?” he mumbles as he turns around in Dex’s arms, snaking his own around Dex’s waist.

“You were snoring.”

Nursey scrunches up his nose and it’s, somehow, one of the cutest things Dex has ever seen. “Sorry.” 

It takes Nursey a moment to open his eyes, but when he does, it’s almost too much for Dex, especially adding the soft, sleepy smile Nursey offers him. “Mornin’.”

“Morning,” Dex throws back. He can’t help but lean in to kiss him. Their first good morning kiss, he realizes, and they both have bad breath. It’s fine, though. When he pulls away, Nursey’s wearing that soft smile again and Dex simply has to kiss it again and again.

Eventually, though, Nursey breaks the kiss and leans up on his elbow. He looks him over, eyes trailing up Dex’s bare chest to his face, smile never slipping. “You got a few hickeys there.”

“Oh yeah?” Dex cocks an eyebrow, “Where?”

Nursey moves to set his free hand down on the mattress on Dex’s other side and leans down to press a soft kiss to Dex’s collarbone. “Here.” Another kiss goes to the base of his neck. “And here.” Nursey trails a few more soft kisses up his throat, muttering a _here and here and here_ into Dex’s skin. Dex lets his eyes fall shut as he focuses on nothing else but Nursey’s lips on his skin, now trailing kisses down the other side of his throat to a chorus of _and there and there and there_.

He’s going to get chirped to hell and back and fined even worse, he knows that, but they’re chirps he’ll gladly take and fines he won’t mind paying.

Nursey’s made it back to Dex’s collarbone and sets to work on a new hickey when both their stomachs start to growl.

“Wanna go upstairs to look for food?” Dex asks as Nursey pulls off of him again. 

“Not really,” Nursey admits and flops back down onto his back. “I don’t wanna get out of bed.”

“Me neither,” Dex says, but his stomach pipes up again. “We should go up, though.”

Nursey scoots further down the bed as he whines, “No, babe, don’t make me get up.”

“Babe, huh?” Dex repeats and he knows he’s blushing. He leans over and kisses Nursey softly once, twice, until he almost forgets he’s hungry. “C’mon, Nursey, up,” he tries again as he reluctantly slips out of bed himself.

He sidesteps their clothes on the floor from last night on his way to his desk and pulls on the shirt hanging over the back of his chair. “The longer you stay here the worse your chores for cleanup will get,” Dex warns, turning back toward his bed.

Nursey is curled up under the comforter again, lying on his side and watching Dex. “I don’t care, I’ll clean the bathrooms if I have to as long as I can stay here a little longer.”

Dex chuckles as he returns to Nursey’s side, “You’re so brave,” he jokes and leans down to press another kiss to Nursey’s lips. Now that he started it, he doesn’t think he can stop.

“Yes, I know, thank you,” Nursey mutters against his lips and kisses him once more. “Bring me something down here, though?”

Dex huffs. “Fine,” he concedes, no real need for convincing anyway. He tells himself it’s the last one when he kisses Nursey again, quick and sweet. He gets up and crosses the room to climb up the stairs before he can give in to the temptation of crawling back into bed with Nursey.

When he steps into the kitchen, he’s greeted with wolf whistles.

“Damn, Dex,” Chowder comments from where he’s sitting on the counter as Dex gets two mugs out of the cupboard and starts pouring coffee. "Is that glitter in your hair?"

“You met a vampire last night, Captain?” Farmer chirps gleefully, leaning against the counter next to Chowder, while Dex stacks some of the pancakes she seems to have made onto a plate. He and Nursey will have to share, but he doubts that’ll be a problem.

“Maybe we should start cooking with more garlic,” Whiskey suggests quietly from behind his own coffee mug. Dex just rolls his eyes and pours maple syrup onto the stack.

“Wait,” Tango pipes up as Dex grabs two knives and two forks from the silverware drawer, “wouldn’t that be useless? If he met a vampire last night, wouldn’t Dex be dead already?”

Dex laughs, balances the plate on his forearm and grabs the two mugs in his hand. “See you guys later,” he says on his way out of the kitchen, pointedly ignoring the wolf whistles that have started up again.

Realistically, he and Nursey will get the worst chores, like unsticking the living room floor or cleaning up vomit from both bathrooms, but as he carefully takes the basement steps down one at a time, he finds he doesn’t care. That much.

Nursey’s waiting down there, in his room, in his bed, and that’s all that matters to Dex right now.

Thank God for Halloween.

**Author's Note:**

> wow they sure do kiss a lot in this! (just wait for my next project, which awaits editing as we speak, where all they do is kiss)
> 
> the song nursey sings at dex? freak fest by seth freeman.
> 
> i have to admit writing ryan was fun. he's a good dude. he bullies dex when he needs it, like when he's whining about his clearly requited crush!
> 
> come say hi to me on my new shiny check please tumblr at [hashtagdex](https://hashtagdex.tumblr.com)!
> 
> anyway, thanks for reading! i hope you had fun!


End file.
